Marshall took up boxing at age 17 after moving to Cleveland. He had over 200 amateur fights, losing in the 1934 national semi-finals to Fred Apostoli and in the 1935
national amateur finals to Dave Clark.

Lloyd turned pro with ex-fighter Johnny Papke in 1936 and won 12 in a row before
considering retirement due to injustices in the game. He teamed up with Frank Doljack
(former outfielder for the Detroit Tigers) who was then playing ball in Sacremento.
When Doljack didn't have the time to handle his career properly Marshall was signed
over to Jim Edwards.

After the victory against Overlin, Lloyd became tangled up with mob figures and
basically had his hands tied for the rest of his career.

All told he would go onto defeat eight fighters who held World Titles.
His most impressive victories came against Ezzard Charles, whom he
kayoed, and against Hall of Famer Charley Burley. Besides the obvious
racial barriers in boxing, Marshall was hurt by the fact that he peaked
while the titles were frozen during the war, and by the fact that he had
a mediocre chin.